I Thought You Were in Tampa
by New Decade
Summary: Eric refused to believe that was to be the last time he heard Calleigh's voice, the last time he would run his fingers through her hair or the last time his lips would touch hers. "Backfire" through Eric's eyes.


First of all, my friend (you know who you are) thanks for taping this episode because I wasn't home in time to watch it. I owe you one!

I came up with this while watching "Backfire."

This is the story through Eric's eyes. May not flow very well, but has tons of E/C.

Disclaimer: I don't own CSI: Miami or its characters, I used some of these lines from the episode (full credit to the writers who wrote this amazing episode) and the brief appearance of Eric's partner is my own creation.

* * *

The State Attorney had given him a case that took him all the way to Tampa, something about a major drug bust and it connecting to a Miami gang. Three days ago, Eric had taken the plane ride to the other side of the state of Florida and was supposed to stay there until the case was wrapped up. That was until things took an unexpected turn.

Eric had been standing in the middle of the Tampa crime lab with his partner on this investigation, Sam MuGuire. Sam was nice enough, but he was nothing like the colleagues he had back at MDPD, which Eric found himself missing more and more everyday. Eric's phone started to ring in his pocket, thinking it was just another lead, Eric answered without looking at the caller ID.

"Delko," he addressed himself.

"Eric," said the worried voice of Horatio on the other end. Eric knew this tone, this wasn't about work or just a friendly talk, this was the tone Horatio used when he told him Marisol was dead, something was deadly wrong. That thought made Eric's stomach drop, the kind of feeling you get on a sharp turn on the road or when a roller coaster drops you from two hundred feet, only worse.

"One second," Eric mouthed to Sam as he walked down the hall away from him to have this conversation in private. "H, what's going on?" he asked aloud.

"It's…it's Calleigh," Horatio said, fear and sadness coating his voice, not the strong and sure voice Horatio usually used.

_God, no, _Eric prayed. He wouldn't be able to handle it if anything happened to her. Things weren't exactly stable as far as their relationship status went, but that didn't mean Eric wasn't entitled to feel just as scared as he did (maybe more) when Calleigh had been kidnapped or when they were in the crane accident. They weren't sure if they were together, separated, or what, but they did know that they were more than friends and could never use the title of "friends" again. That's why things were so complicated.

But that didn't matter for now, something was wrong, something so wrong Horatio had felt the need to call him.

"She's back in respiratory failure," Horatio explained in a pained voice.

"What?" Eric asked, the same fear in his voice. "How? What happened?"

"There was an arson committed this morning, she went into the fire to rescue a young boy, but she couldn't save him," Horatio sighed.

Typical Calleigh, putting her life on the line to help someone out, even a stranger. Eric should have known that her luck would eventually run out and she would end up hurt because of it.

"The smoke was just too much for her damaged lungs to take and…she's hanging in there for now, but we don't know how much longer she'll be able to fight," Horatio said, gently.

"Okay," Eric nodded, his mind made up. "I'm on the next flight out."

"See you then."

And with that they disconnected. Eric had already started dialing the airport to schedule a flight, the next flight.

"Delko?" Sam asked as he came up to Eric. "Everything alright?"

Eric shook his head as he put his phone to his ear.

"No, I need to get back to Miami," Eric explained, hurriedly as the other line rang.

"Why?"

"Someone I'm close to," he said, knowing he just made the biggest understatement of the millennium. "Is in the hospital…you think you can finish up here without me?"

"Yeah, sure man, no problem," Sam nodded.

"Thanks," Eric said, gratefully as he spoke to the airport worker on the other line to book a flight. He hung up not a second after his flight was set and was heading for the elevator.

"Rebecca's going to have your head for this," Sam called after him.

"I'll deal with her later," Eric called back as he stepped into the elevator and anxiously hit the button time and again to get him to the lobby.

Not an hour later, Eric was on a plane heading for Miami. His luggage was still in his hotel room, he didn't care, he'd call and have them send it back later. The only thing he could think about now was Calleigh and how she was lying in a hospital bed with, no doubt, tubes and needles covering every inch of her body. Eric hated the memory of her like that from the previous incident; it was still so fresh in his mind that it was painful to think she was experiencing that again. He also remembered him telling her that he couldn't picture living his life without her last time, something that he still meant, no matter how unstable their relationship was. He couldn't picture living on this Earth without Calleigh walking on it too, nor did he want to.

He couldn't find the point of having a life without Calleigh and her gun skills. He wouldn't know how he'd get through knowing Calleigh wasn't there, either as a friend, colleague, lover or just alive. More than once, when they first went their separate ways, Eric laid in bed wondering if she was okay, worrying about her.

As the plane flew over the state below, Eric let his mind go back to three days ago, when he first left for Tampa.

"_I've got to go," Eric whispered an hour earlier than they normally would have to get up, but he had a flight to catch._

_The still half-asleep Calleigh rolled in his arms to look over at him, a faint smile on her lips._

"_I'll miss you," she said, sleepily, opening her drooping eyelids._

_"I'll miss you, too," he replied, pulling her closer to put his lips to hers. She kissed him back, willingly, she parted her lips and he did the same in response. Calleigh put her arms around his neck and moved her lips from his down his neck, to the base of his throat to his chest. Eric enjoyed the sensations as her lips graced his skin. He would have loved to just stay here in the direction in which this morning was going, but the plane wouldn't wait._

_He took her face in his hands and guided her lips up to his. Calleigh seemed to understand that he needed to leave as she pulled back._

_"I guess I'll see you in a few days," she sighed, sadly._

_"You will," Eric promised, kissing the bridge of her nose before sliding away from her to grab his clothes. Eric could feel Calleigh's eyes following him as he pulled on his clothes, wishing Calleigh would be there to help take them back off again that night._

_He finished buttoning his shirt and turned to fear Calleigh, who was leaning against the pillow, a sheet wrapped around her, loosely. Eric walked over to her and sat on the edge of the bed. She smiled a small, tired, smile that he returned. He wrapped an arm around her sheet-covered waist and pulled her to kiss him a final time. Her lips were soft against his as he ran his hand through her hair. Their lips separated sooner than he would have wanted, but they did, they had to._

_"See you," he smiled._

_"See you," she agreed._

_He touched her cheek and then he was gone._

Eric refused to believe that was to be the last time he heard Calleigh's voice, the last time he would run his fingers through her hair or the last time his lips would touch hers. He didn't want to believe it, but a tiny part of him knew it was a possibility.

His heart was racing, wishing this plane would speed up a few thousand miles per hour, fear running like blood through his veins.

"Wait for me, Calleigh," he whispered. "Please, fight."

The plane finally landed and he all but ran through the airport, receiving a few dirty looks while doing so. Eric continued at the same pace until he reached the parking garage, Horatio was there, waiting in the Hummer. Not even bothering with introductions, Eric climbed into the passenger seat and Horatio started driving before the door was closed. Horatio's rushed manner beneath his calm features made Eric worry even more, when Horatio was like this he knew it was bad.

"How is she doing?" Eric asked, almost afraid of the answer.

"She's fighting," Horatio nodded, the wilderness of his driving contradicting his outwardly calm manner.

They zipped in and out of cars as they sirens blared on until they reached the hospital.

"Jesse and Natalia should be inside, I'll be right there," Horatio said as Eric got out, only partly hearing what Horatio was saying as he got out and Horatio went to go park.

Eric ran through the lobby and was about to ask about Calleigh when he saw Natalia and Jesse walking down the hall. He jogged to catch up to them. They didn't address each other; they all knew why they were there.

They all stopped dead as they approached her room. There was a plate of glass between the three and Calleigh. Eric's heart froze when he saw her.

"Oh, my God," Natalia said, absolutely stunned, the beginnings of tears in her eyes. "Look at her."

"She looks terrible," Jesse shook his head, worried lines creasing in his forehead.

Eric didn't know what he was expecting, but he wasn't expecting her to look like this.

"This is worse than I thought," Eric admitted his thoughts out loud.

Calleigh had an IV in her arm, a tube in down her throat, a heart monitoring clip on her right hand and was surrounded by too many machines to count, way more than last time it seemed. Calleigh herself looked rough, as Jesse had said. She looked uncomfortable, even though she was not conscious. Eric was certain she wasn't this bad over a year ago when this first occurred, and that caused him panic like he never felt before. Eric couldn't watch this, how weak she was, it was all too painful to watch.

"Let's go find Horatio," Eric suggested, just wanting to get away. His voice sounded sad, even to him.

Jesse was the first to walk away, eager to get as far from this as possible. Natalia began to leave, paused and through another sad look to the women on the other side of the window, then followed Jesse but she did looking over her shoulder. Eric stepped up, looking in shock into the room; he didn't wanted to believe what he was seeing but knew it was real. He would have given anything for this to be a dream, just for her to not be here, for her to be okay.

Eric couldn't watch this and it almost pained him as much to turn away as it did to stay. He went to catch up with Natalia and Jesse. His heart felt heavy and the temperature surrounding him felt like it dropped as they walked down the hall, the image of Calleigh plaguing him. Eric's normally optimistic mind started becoming the opposite.

"_You're going to lose her, she won't make it," _a little voice in his head hissed, coldly.

Eric tried to block out the voice by reminding himself that Calleigh was strong, a fighter.

But then the voice sneered, _"Everyone falls…everyone."_

The voice kept talking until they reached the lobby to see Horatio walking in, sunglasses in his hands. The trio approached him, his eyes turning sad at their solemn expressions.

"How is she?" Horatio asked the question that would no doubt be used a thousand times today.

"Bad," Jesse sighed. Eric was obviously not the only one with a pessimistic outlook on today.

Horatio nodded.

"Do we know who did this, H?" Eric asked.

"We're working on it, Eric," Horatio reassured him. Eric nodded, thankful that Horatio and the rest of the team were making this top priority.

"We'll get back to work," Natalia said, she too upset by the circumstance.

"Ms. Boa Vista, I'd like you back at the lab, we may be getting more evidence. And Jesse, Walter's already at the crime scene, why don't you join him, please," Horatio said.

The CSI's nodded and left the hospital, leaving Horatio and Eric alone.

Eric exhaled heavily and ran his head over the top of his head as he hung his head, the full weight of the day gaining on him and his fear increasing.

"You okay?" Horatio asked him, concerned.

Eric dropped his hand and put his hands on his hips.

"Yeah," he sighed, looking up at Horatio. "I'm gonna stay with her."

Horatio nodded, their eyes met and Eric knew that somehow Horatio knew there was something between Eric and Calleigh than just friendship.

"Let me know if anything changes," Horatio said.

"I will," Eric promised.

With a final glance, Horatio left and Eric turned on his heel as he made his way back to Calleigh's room. Eric knew what he would see before him when he looked back through the glass and went into the room. He reached her room and saw her; his heart just about broke. Taking a deep breath, he pulled down on the silver handle and entered. The sound of her heartbeat from the monitor filled his ears, it was beating in the same constant _beep!…beep!…beep! _The first thing Eric noticed about it was that it was weaker than it should have been. He also heard a hissing from her breathing tube, the only thing keeping her alive.

He was filled with sadness, anger and feared filled him as he took the sight of her in before sitting down in the chair next to her on her left and taking her hand in both on his.

"Hi," Eric whispered. "I don't know how any of this happened, but H and the rest of the team are on the case, they'll figure it out."

Eric wished she would answer but she continued to lie there, unaware of his presence.

"This is the same deal as last time, okay," he reached up to put his hand on her shoulder. "You just have to focus on…" the medical terms from last time escaped Eric, he took a deep breath before he continued. "Focus on staying alive."

Eric couldn't take his eyes off of her and, for some reason, he kept talking as though he could bring her back if he did.

"You're on in a million, Calleigh, we can't-," he took a ragged breath. "We can't lose you."

_I can't lose you, _he wanted to say out loud but couldn't find it within himself to say, it would hurt too much.

He put his lips to her forehead and moved his hand from her shoulder to smooth her hair back.

"Please, come back," he was able to choke out through his tight throat. He didn't know what else to say or if he could say anything else. He moved his hand back to where their hands were already intertwined. He pressed his lips in a firm line as he attempted to control his pain.

Eric's eyes never left her face, praying the whole time her eyelids would flutter open and her eyes would be revealed to him like they had been on odd morning he would wake up before the alarm sounded. He would look at Calleigh as her mind was still in the realm of dreams, her resting in his arms. It never ceased to take his breath away every time he saw her angelic face, peaceful as she let all her worries disappear in her slumber. He would never have to wait long for her eyes to open and she'd be sucked back into the world of reality as she left her dreams behind. Her green eyes would fall on him and she would grin at him as a new day began.

But this time was different than those memorable mornings. There was no peace; there was no smile and the possibility of no tomorrow.

He looked up to see her doctor and a nurse walk into her room. Eric stood up as they approached.

"Excuse me, Mr.…" the doctor started.

"Delko," Eric told the doctor.

"Mr. Delko, we are just checking to see how she's doing," the doctor explained.

Eric nodded as he stepped back to let them do their job.

There was a change on the monitor and the atmosphere changed to an intense panic at the same time.

"Doctor, her heart rate is dropping!" the nurse said, hurriedly.

"Start chest compressions!" the doctor ordered as he reached to get the paddles, the nurse attempting to get Calleigh's heart going faster

"Calleigh! Calleigh!" he cried at her, hand on her calf as he attempted to reach her. He needed to get through to her, Eric knew he was losing her, she was slipping away from him forever. Slipping beyond the reach of the phone or a drive to her home, this was the life or death moment determining if he would ever see her again.

"Charging," the doctor said as he put the paddles where the nurse's hands had been two seconds ago. "Clear!"

There was a zap like sound as Calleigh's chest rose and fell with the shock.

"Calleigh!" Eric called to her again. "Hey!" There was a long monotonic sound from the machine as he spoke.

"She's in V-Fib, no pulse!" the nurse reported to the doctor.

"Baby, come on!" Eric pleaded.

The nurse started doing chest compressions as the doctor got the paddles ready.

"Charging to two hundred," the doctor said, putting the paddles over her again.

"Calleigh, come on!" he shouted with more force this time.

"Clear!" the doctor shouted as he shocked her, but it had no effect.

"Calleigh, come on!" Eric shouted.

_Don't give up! Not now! _was all he could think.

Eric saw that the doctor put the paddles down and turned away from Calleigh as the nurse started compressions again.

"You're not going to shock her again?" Eric asked, furiously. "Do something! Help her! Save her!" Eric's mind was shouting a thousand times louder than he was. Why wasn't his guy doing anything? Every second was counting against her.

"That's exactly what I'm doing!" the doctor spun around with a needle full of drugs which he plunged right into Calleigh's heart. A few more compressions from the nurse and Calleigh's eyes flew open and her head shot up as she took a shocked breath. Her eyes were wide with fear and she gagged slightly on the plastic tube in her throat.

Everyone could see the confusion and fear in Calleigh's eyes as she fell back into her pillows.

"It's okay, we're right here," the nurse reassured her, though her words seemed to be no comfort for Calleigh as she still seemed lost in what was going on.

"Look at me, look at me," Eric coaxed her to look in his eyes, putting his hand on the side of her face. When they looked at each other and Calleigh felt his touch, she seemed to relax. "It's okay, it's alright."

She calmed down as he continued to stand over her. In that moment, relief swept over him, she was awake and alive. She was going to make it.

Eric was standing outside her room, watching as the nurse took the breathing tube out of Calleigh's mouth and put an oxygen tube under her nose. The relief had only lasted a short time, not long after he felt his protective side come into play as he worried if she could fall ill to this again before she left the hospital. Maybe he was getting paranoid, but it wasn't something he could control.

"Mr. Delko," the doctor addressed him.

"Hi, doctor," Eric said. "How's she doing?" he nodded toward Calleigh.

"The smoke this morning aggravated her pre-existing lung disease," the doctor explained.

Eric had figured that much, but he was still confused on one thing.

"Well, why did her heart stop?" Eric asked.

"We're not sure," the doctor shook his head. "But she responded well to the defibrillation and the medication. She'll be week for a couple of hours, she may have trouble speaking, but her exam and test results are normal."

Eric nodded, but he still wasn't one hundred percent sure of Calleigh's safety.

"Alright, thanks," he said before making his way back into Calleigh's room.

She smiled and gave a small wave as he came over to her bedside.

"Hi," he whispered to her.

"Hi," she mouthed, attempting to talk but no sound coming out of her mouth.

"Don't try to speak," he chuckled softly, so did she. "Just relax."

She just continued to smile at him.

Eric happened to look up to see Horatio standing outside her window, she looked over at the when she saw Eric's head look out. Horatio was smiling, not something you saw everyday, at Calleigh for winning yet another battle.

Calleigh looked over at Eric and mouthed something that looked like "pen."

"What?" he asked then she made a motion with her hand as though she were writing something. "What, you want to write something down?"

She nodded, desperate to get whatever it was written.

"Okay, calm down," Eric laughed a bit, he was worried that she was going to over work herself just by communicating. "I'll get you a pen," he said, handing her the pen and notepad on the table at the foot of her bed. She began scribbling notes down then ripped off the piece of paper and handed it to him.

Eric wasn't exactly sure what she wanted him to do with this.

"What does this mean?" he asked.

She wrote something else down.

This note made sense, it read _Give to H, don't know what it means, it was in my dream._

Eric looked up at Horatio then back to her.

"Okay," he whispered. "Alright I'll bring it to him…just relax."

Horatio seemed to connect that the markings on the note were case related and Calleigh knew this because she was first on the scene. As long as the person who put her here was behind bars, he would be happy, even if he didn't fully understand it. Horatio left to close the case as Eric walked back into Calleigh's room. She was about to open her mouth to mouth something, he had a feeling he knew what, so he cut across her.

"He understands, he's going to follow the lead," he reassured her.

Calleigh nodded, smiling a bit. She raised her hand up off the bed, though not very high. Grinning at her, her took her hand and sat down next to her.

"Can you make me a promise?" he asked.

Calleigh nodded.

"Try not to get up in anymore fires, lets not push your luck anymore," he said.

Calleigh chuckled a bit and nodded. She attempted to stifle a yawn, but failed.

"Get some sleep," Eric whispered. "You've had a long day."

Calleigh picked up the notepad again and began to write something down, Eric rolled his eyes.

"Cal, whatever it is it can wait until you've gotten some strength built up," Eric tried to reason, but she already held up the piece of paper and it bore one word.

_Tampa?_

He shook his head and looked at her, he reached hovered over her to tuck some stray hair behind her ear.

"I've told you before that I'm always going to be here for you and I meant it," Eric whispered. "Tampa doesn't matter."

Calleigh smiled a tired, but touched, smile. She took a deep breath and seemed to be trying to gather all the strength she could muster to talk.

"Thank you," she croaked out.

"Shh," Eric hushed her, cradling her face with his hand. "Sleep…I'll be here when you wake up."

* * *

I was going to write about the morgue scene in the end, but I loved that scene so much I didn't even want to risk damaging it. I tend to do that a lot (seriously, I'm a walking talking disaster).

I've been up since four a.m. writing this and have been trying to balance work and this all day to get this done, so I hope you liked it!

Please review!


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